Musiq Soulchild, Donell Jones, et Slim of 112

Unlike most artists who normally have to wait a while before achieving mainstream success, Musiq didn't waste any time. His début album "Aijuswanaseing" (I just wanna sing) went into the Billboard 200 at number four, whilst his following album, "Juslisen" was a number one hit. Both albums received critical acclaim as they gained platinum status, making Musiq a household name after just a few years.

Following a successful couple of albums, Soulchild was inevitably nominated for many prestigious awards. Two of his leading singles from his early discography "Love" and "Halfcrazy" were short-listed for the Best R&B Vocal Performance in consecutive years, whilst "Juslisen" was nominated for Best R&B Album in 2002. Despite not winning the awards, the nominations clearly gave him the encouragement to make better and more soulful music.

Soulchild went on to release two more number one albums in 2007 and 2008 with "Luvanmusiq" and "OnTheRadio". The former album in particular was well received and was awarded with three Grammy nominations.

Having not released a solo album since 2011, Musiq's most recent project was an album entitled '9ine' with Syleena Johnson, although this failed to have any major chart impact. Musiq is now a artist signed to My Block Records following his recent departure from Atlantic Records.

Musiq is first and foremost a rather unique singer. Although you could vaguely describe his music as either being soul or R&B, he encompasses a wide range of genres that make him stylistically different. He has been known to incorporate elements of funk into his music, whilst he also claims he has a "hip hop swagger". To a modern audience, the easiest way to describe him would be a mixture of the soulful singing of Frank Ocean combined with the vocal range and relaxed paced of The Weeknd.

Sometimes the best music comes from those with the biggest divide in them. Those that constantly have a devil and an angel on their shoulder and can’t quite decide which one they want to go with. Donell Jones’ upbringing typifies this since he was born the son of a gospel singer, but early in his adolescence was tempted by the seedy goings-on of the south side of his native Chicago. Fortunately for both him and us, Jones made the right decision to immerse himself in music rather than the gangs he grew up alongside, and made his official debut as a singer-songwriter in 1993.

Shortly afterwards he struck up a friendship with a DJ named Edward “Eddie F” Ferrell, and the two formed a creative partnership with LaFace Records. After “Think Of You”, a song that Jones wrote, was taken and made a hit by some no-hoper called Usher, the higher-ups at LaFace gave Jones the all-clear to record his debut solo album. The album was released in 1996 and “My Heart” was a respectable hit for someone on their debut effort, powered by a hit cover of Stevie Wonder’s 1976 single “Knocks Me Off My Feet” as its lead single.

However, the stars would later align for him with his second record. “Where I Wanna Be” was a bona-fide smash, going platinum within the year and yielding smash hit singles on both sides of the Atlantic. This album made him free to do whatever he wanted to do with his follow up records, and since then his soul inflected R&B has bought him more critical notices than many others with better chart records, but the numbers were never what made Jones special. His sheer songwriting skill and golden voice did that fine, and neither of them have diminished whatsoever during his 20 plus years in show business. Highly recommended.